Reid Park Zoo’s Zebra Foal Has a Name: Introducing “Tikiti”
The votes are in! Reid Park Zoo is excited to announce that its zebra foal, born on Christmas Day, officially has a name.
More than 6,000 votes were cast, with “Tikiti Maji” coming in as the top choice.
The name, which means “watermelon” in Swahili, was proposed by the Zoo’s hoofstock team due to her mother Anna’s fondness for the summer fruit during her pregnancy. The team plans on calling her “Tikiti”.
At one month old, Tikiti is doing great. She has become more comfortable around the Zoo’s other female zebra, Zuri. Tikiti, Anna, and Zuri have been spending time together as a herd day and night, grazing and resting nearby each other. During your next visit to Reid Park Zoo, you might catch Tikiti kicking up her legs or zooming through her habitat.
The zebra care team has begun working with Tikiti on shifting into different areas of the zebra habitat. This relationship will build as Tikiti grows, eventually leading to healthcare behaviors such as voluntarily going onto a scale for weighing.
Today is International Zebra Day, and Grevy’s zebras are the largest and most endangered zebra species. Their population in the wild has dropped significantly over the last 40 years, with fewer than 2,000 Grevy’s zebras remaining in Africa today. Every Grevy’s zebra born is an asset to the long term survival of their species. Tikiti’s parents, Ben and Anna, have a breeding recommendation from their Species Survival Plan, a cooperative effort which works to ensure a genetically stable and viable population.
Photos and video are available on Dropbox.